Burlington Township spread the wealth in its lopsided victory over Florence

Wednesday

Dec 28, 2011 at 12:01 AMDec 28, 2011 at 5:00 AM

By Dave ZangaroStaff Writer

BURLINGTON TWP. — None of the players on the Burlington Township High School girls basketball team really stand out.

But that’s not a bad thing.

Thanks to contributions from a bunch of girls on the roster, the Falcons dropped Florence, 68-30, on Tuesday afternoon in the first round of the four-team 2011 Burlington Township Holiday Classic.

The Falcons will play the Ewing Blue Devils, who beat Haddon Heights, 58-24, in the final on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

Simi Adewumi led the Falcons with 16 points, Cierra Ray and Taylor Whitley each added 12, Carin Essex-Arline and Shavonne Hubbard each scored nine, and Alicia Bradley scored eight. It was a balanced offensive attack.

“I knew coming into the season what we had to work with and we knew that we were going to be really balanced,” Burlington Township coach Jason Williams said. “So we designed the offense to get everybody the ball and let everybody make plays.”

Burlington Township (3-1) trailed only once, with the first point of the game, and then jumped out to a 21-13 lead after the first quarter. The Falcons pushed the lead to 37-28 after the first half and then really gained separation in the third quarter, when they outscored the Flashes, 21-0.

“We’re pretty equal,” said Ray, a senior. “That’s very important. This year, our chemistry is really good and it shows on the court. Each player has the same amount of a role on the team. No one has an ego. We all know that we need the other four players.”

The Falcons have had three different girls lead them in scoring in their first four games. After starting the season with two wins, the Falcons were beaten badly by Holy Cross in the game previous to Florence.

“We just tried to use the Holy Cross game as motivation and not make the same mistakes,” Ray said. “We just had to build our confidence level up. If our confidence isn’t up, we’ll have the same turnout as the Holy Cross game.”

Ray said that they’ll really need to learn from the Holy Cross game when they play Ewing on Wednesday. The Blue Devils have some quick guards, just like Holy Cross.

“We have to slow the game down,” Ray said. “We have to get out and penetrate.”

Adewumi, in addition to her game-high 16 points, collected nine rebounds and was a force inside.

“They were just letting her catch it down low,” Williams said. “I kept telling the girls, if they’re gonna let her catch it, keep throwing it down there for her. Let her go to work.”

With the loss, Florence (1-2) has dropped its last two games after beating Riverside in the opener. The last two losses have come against tough opponents in Bordentown (BCSL Patriot Division) and Burlington Township (BCSL Liberty). Heather Horner led the Flashes with eight points.

“I think we just need to be more confident in our passes,” Florence coach Carey Traynor said. “We have a tendency to throw the ball away and we need to work on that. We need to have more confidence to drive and dish and they don’t have the confidence yet.

“I did see some nice things eventually but it needs to be consistent. I saw some nice things and we’ll build on it.”

The Falcons’ defense held Florence to just 10 points in three quarters and held them scoreless in the entire third quarter with a swarming defense and constant pressure.

“It was great. The intensity was there today,” Williams said. “We had constant ball pressure, which we didn’t have for a few games here. When you pressure the ball it just makes the defense better around it.”

Williams said he’s happy with where his team is at this point in the season but said there still needs to be more improvement. It better happen quickly. After Ewing, the Falcons face Trenton Catholic, Rancocas Valley, Willingboro and Delran (four of the toughest teams in South Jersey) in a row.

“We’re almost there,” Williams said. “We’re not quite where I want us to be.”

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